Welcome!

About this dashboard…
This idea was initially designed by Randy Swaty as an alternative to a PowerPoint presentation. There was interest in building on this idea in the conservation community and I, Myles Walimaa, made some updates with newer data and a few new charts. This can certainly be built upon and these workflows may be used for any area of interest. The State of Michigan is the target area for this dashboard, since it is where both Randy and I have lived for years.

Randy is an ecologist for The Nature Conservancy and I am a former National Park Service employee and currently a GIS Analyst. We both work with the Conservation Data Lab to mentor students in the art of computer coding and data visualization, particularly for conservation purposes.

The purpose of this dashboard is to explore the major ecosystems of Michigan’s past and how they have changed.
As you explore, ask yourself some of these questions:

PLEASE read the disclaimers on each slide explaining the assumptions with each dataset. This is meant for exploratory purposes only.

#{r, out.width = "400px", fig.align='center', fig.cap="Coastline of Lake Superior. Photo taken by Myles Walimaa."} #knitr::include_graphics("./dash/mi_coast.jpeg") #

Area of Interest


Michigan

Looking Back

Historical map of Michigan based on LANDFIRE's BioPhysical Settings

Historical map of Michigan based on LANDFIRE’s BioPhysical Settings


DISCLAIMER:
This map was created using LANDFIRE’s BioPhysical Settings. As there was no satellite imagery 300 years ago, this is a model of what the historical ecosystems looked like based soil types, climate, elevation, ecological succession, among many other datasets.

This is what we think the distribution of ecosystems looked like prior to European settlement. The caretakers of this land at the time were the indigenous natives who called the Great Lakes their home. They recognized the value of fire for regeneration and resiliency, often performing “prescribed” burns to keep their home strong and healthy.

Explore this map created by Native Land Digital to learn more about which tribes were located where. Botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer’s book Braiding Sweetgrass provides valuable insight on the traditional ways the natives connected with the land, largely through combining ancient philosophy and modern science.

Historical Ecosystems


DISCLAIMER:
This chart was created using LANDFIRE’s BioPhysical Settings. As there was no satellite imagery 300 years ago, this is a model of what the historical ecosystems looked like based soil types, climate, elevation, ecological succession, among many other datasets.

How accurate do you think this chart is?

Do you think BPS_NAME or GROUPVEG has higher accuracy in describing ecosystems?

Take “North-Central Interior Beech-Maple Forest” for example:

The point is that this is not a perfect representation, although it helps us gain a general understanding of what probably was going on several hundred years ago. If you want to explore the BPS dataset further, you can find information here and Randy knows where there is a .pdf or something that has descriptions of what all the silly BPS_NAMEs mean, with examples of what kind of things will probably be found there… right??? LIKE THE EVT ONE??? IT MUST EXIST SOMEWHERE

Ecosystems Today


DISCLAIMER:
This chart was created using LANDFIRE’s Existing Vegetation Type. This uses satellite imagery, ground assessment, and other methods to describe current “ecosystems” (or lack thereof). I grouped all the developed sub-categories into a single “Developed” classification.

Does anything jump out to you as surprising?

Should “ruderal” ecosystems be classified as agriculture, exotic, or something else? Disturbed?

What do you notice about the historical and current ratios of conifers-to-hardwoods?

Again, this is not a perfect representation of today’s conditions and is meant for scales of several thousand+ acres. If you want to explore the EVT dataset further, you can find information here and can read about its development. There is a nifty handbook that discusses each ecosystem classification in a fair amount of depth, so you may get a better idea of what you may find there.

Spatial Exploration of Change

Map of ecosystem change in Michigan using LANDFIRE's Succession Class dataset.

Map of ecosystem change in Michigan using LANDFIRE’s Succession Class dataset.


DISCLAIMER: The assumptions made in this map are that if the ecosystems are no longer following the trajectory of natural ecological succession, then they have been converted into something unnatural. This map does not consider ecosystems changing from one to another as that may happen naturally, only change into non-native, mineland, agriculture, development, or the like.

Where has most of the ecosystem conversion taken place?

To what category have most of the ecosystems converted? What used to be there?

Visual Exploration of Change


DISCLAIMER: The assumptions made in this chart are that if the ecosystems are no longer following the trajectory of natural ecological succession, then they have been converted into something unnatural. This chart does not consider ecosystems changing from one to another as that may happen naturally, only change into non-native, mineland, agriculture, development, or the like.

Which ecosystems remain mostly the same? Is this surprising?

Where did most of the agricultural land come from? Do you notice any trends?

Are there any ecosystems that might be close to disappearing completely?

Coarse Look at Conversion


DISCLAIMER:
Unfortunately, this is not an “apples to apples” comparison. The datasets used were BioPhysical Settings (historical model) and Existing Vegetation Type (current satellite imagery, ground assessment, other methods). Additionally, the Existing Vegetation Type is not a perfect representation of the ground because there can be multiple ecosystems found in 900 m2 (remember 30m x 30m pixels).

Does anything surprise you about how things have changed?

Which ecosystems had the least amount of conversion? What about the most?

Why did so little Agricultural land come from Coniferous ecosystems?

Fine Look at Conversion


DISCLAIMER:
Unfortunately, this is not an “apples to apples” comparison. The datasets used were BioPhysical Settings (historical model) and Existing Vegetation Type (current satellite imagery, ground assessment, other methods). Additionally, the Existing Vegetation Type is not a perfect representation of the ground because there can be multiple ecosystems found in 900 m2 (remember 30m x 30m pixels).

For example, 429,625 acres of North-Central Oak Barrens are now Eastern Cool Temperate Row Crop. Well, roughly.

Again, this is not a perfect comparison and is only intended on giving you a general idea of what’s going on.

ENJOY AND HAVE FUN!!

Learn More

Sources, LF documentation, ideas, idk some useful stuff to keep pushing these people to research stuff